Norovirus Mortality, Hospitalizations Linked to Low Staffing Levels

A new report has linked low staffing levels and negative outcomes related to norovirus outbreaks in long-term care facilities.

Researchers at the University of Chicago studied 308 nursing homes that reported a total of 407 norovirus outbreaks to the National Outbreak Reporting System (NORS) between January of 2009 and December of 2010. They found that facilities with lower nurse-hour-to-bed ratios were most at risk for increased mortality and hospitalizations during norovirus outbreaks. An increase in mortality during outbreak periods was limited to homes with less than 0.75 daily registered nurse (RN) hours per bed.

Residents older than 90 experienced the greatest increase in hospitalization and mortality during the norovirus outbreaks.

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